Spirit Airlines makes minor network cuts as Dallas-Mexico expansion continues

Executives at Spirit Airlines often declare that if routes don't reach profitability within a given time the carrier will yank the service and redeploy assets on a bevy of other routes it has in the pipeline. Now the company is applying that logic to two relatively new routes that have launched within the last year. Service between Dallas/Fort Worth and Houston that began in Sep-2012 is ending in Sep-2013 while flights it launched from Philadelphia to Las Vegas in Apr-2013 are ending in Jan-2014.

Since it began a rapid domestic expansion in 2011 Spirit has quickly eliminated some routes that fail to prove out its business case of reaching break-even or profitability within six months. It ended service from Dallas/Fort Worth to Boston and between Chicago O'Hare and Los Angeles within roughly a year from launch.

At the same time Spirit has decided to shave markets from Houston and Las Vegas, it is stepping up its seasonal service from Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) to Mexico, reflecting its strategy to use DFW as a springboard into transborder markets similar to its push from Fort Lauderdale to the Caribbean and Latin America that dominated the majority of its expansion during the last decade.